Released: April 2015
Lineup:
- Rory Gilhespy: Drums
- George Linacre: Bass
- Rob O’Murphy: Guitars
- Sam Beattie: Guitars
Tracklist:
- Aphotic
- Monolith
- Nova
- Echoes and Reflections
- Discovery One
- Falling Faintly Through the Universe
- This is Not for You
- Turn Skyward
- Contact Light
There are a handful of bands out there that I feel kind of proprietary about. I regard them as “my” bands, and I’m happy to share them with the rest of you. Some are unknown DIY work-out-of-the-basement outfits, and others relatively well-known, and of course they existed before I found them (in some cases for a considerable time before), but that’s not the point. They are still “mine”.
One of these bands is Eschar, a post-metal foursome from Surrey, UK. I was lucky enough to see them live a while back, on a bill with three other superb independent post-rock outfits (a lineup that might rank as the best multi-band gig I have ever seen in terms of band-to-band quality). At the time they had a 5-track EP (Elements) that they had released a few years earlier, which showed great promise, and I was thrilled to be able to see them. They in turn were blown away by the fact that someone in North America had even heard of them, let alone had come to a gig. So…proprietary. 🙂
Nova is Eschar’s first full-length album, and it has more than fulfilled the promise of the EP. There has been a great leap in song writing chops and confidence since Elements, and some real maturity and sophistication is on display; these guys haven’t been sitting around, that is clear. At first the album didn’t completely grab me; it was heavy and musical but the tracks came across as a bit samey – which alas is one of the downsides of the post-rock genre as a whole. However, there was something about the album; something that kept drawing me back to try again. I’m glad I did, because at last, it clicked, and it has become one of my favourite releases of the year so far.
